Lighting demos at The Photography Show 2017

Lighting demos at The Photography Show 2017

For the third year in a row this year I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at The Photography Show by Profoto.

Those of you who follow my Instagram, where I often post behind the scenes pictures of my shoots, know I rely on Profoto on my shoots. Ever since I first used Profoto years ago, I’ve been worrying less and less about technical issues during shooting, such as radio signal failure between trigger and light or lights missing flashes. Without these preoccupations in mind, I am able to fully concentrate on the creative side of my projects (and the many other preoccupations that come along with producing large shoots!).

This year, I have been both on the Profoto and the Live Stage at The Photography Show, doing lighting demonstrations on soft light and colour gels – two of my ABSOLUTE favourite type of lights to use. The crowds were huge!

The start of my ‘Gel lighting for portraits’ talk on the Live Stage.

Soft lighting talk at the Profoto stage.

My demos started from one light, made to already work well on the subject by itself, and built up step by step to two, three or four light units. Scroll to the bottom to see final images.

(By the way – this is also how usually most of my shoots end up: I arrive at the studio telling my assistant “today is going to be a simple one-light day”, and 15 minutes later there we are juggling 4 light units, colour gels, poly boards and all sorts of modifiers. #sorrynotsorry ).

The truth is – one light can be absolutely beautiful and work so very well on certain projects. I often find myself relying on a large Octabox and finding it is more than enough to bring that specific project and vision to life. Some other times though, there is nothing like adding a splash of colour (or maybe three!), a fill light or an accent light to create a visual impact that is more detailed and unique.

4 lights gel setup on the Live Stage using Profoto D2 and B1

1 light soft setup using a 5′ Octabox

At the show, I also had the pleasure to meeting some of you at my book signing session at the ILEX stand. Unfortunately it didn’t last as long as I would have liked to – as I arrived I was told there were only 3 last copies of my book Lighting People left for grabs before they had sold out on stand!

If wanted to buy a copy and didn’t find one at the stand, you can still grab one through Amazon UK (and several other countries) here, as well as several book retailers in the UK. The book is also now been translated in french and spanish!

Thanks to all of you who came down to the show to say hi and watch the demos. You made the show a great one, and I appreciate all of your support! To finish, a couple of final images below.